1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of handling of fluent materials and more particularly to enclosing material(s)/content(s) and containering/packaging, and the associated supply chain therefor.
2. Background of the Invention
Improving supply chain efficiency is of paramount importance in many industries. Such supply chain efficiency improvement would include the likes of cost reduction, waste reduction, inventory reduction, and products/supplies innovation which create procurement efficiency. The health care industry in particular has the highest initiatives for supply chain efficiency improvement. Cost control and cost reductions, reductions in medical waste, inventory management and other supply chain efficiency improvement's are of paramount concerns. The Efficient Consumer Health Care Response produced in 1996 bu CSC Consulting, Inc. as a text demonstrating the urgency for supply chain efficiency, and cost control in today's financially conscious health care community. Methods and/or Apparatus for deriving and generating efficiency improvements according the present invention are disclosed, and in part comprise volumetric displacement and volumetric replacement of dissimilar materials of dissimilar origins.
Health Care Materials Managers, purchasing personnel and providers have priority initiatives of realizing cost cutting, reducing medical waste, reducing inventory and standardizing supplies with the goal of overall cost savings across the board. The Congress of the United Sates of America has passed legislation such as the Balanced Budget Act, the Medical Waste Tracking Act, and other rules and regulations which place tremendous pressures on providers to implement cost efficiency improvements.
The supply chain comprise(s) in combination, many distinct manufacturing, product and health care practice modality disciplines. Naturally, each of these disciplines have evolved distinctly. Each discipline uses products combined with practice methods/techniques. Care modalities are derived from the combination. Intended indications are generally taught, disclosed and/or elucidated in the instructions for use, directions, and product literature which expresses in text, graphics and images the intended uses, indication(s) for, and how the product is intended to be used. These labels are typically required by regulatory governing bodies. These telltale labeling signs that accompany these products generally meet a regulatory clearance rating. At times, products are utilized off label. Each health care product is generally classified in some regulatory class or category.
Each distinct health care manufacturing/practice disciplines has evolved within respective discipline boundaries. Commodity types of products are generally deemed matured. Matured products usually have little efficiency improvement potential moving forward.
“Point of Consumption”, for a particular product(s), manufacturing and practice captures the usage boundaries, and borders for which a particular innovation/invention has been created/anticipated.
The present invention, discloses methods and apparatus where invention/innovation traverses borders and boundaries, crossing and integrating “Points of Consumption” where need for efficiency improvement has been long felt and long overdue. The instant case defines efficiency improvements in ways not yet defined by the prior art.
The present invention teaches methods for deriving/generating universal containment applicability and provides apparatus for cooperative coaptation traversing distinct disciplines of the prior art. Heretofore, the inventor knows of no prior art, which anticipates the utility of the present invention. The present invention provides methods and apparatus having co-operative and co-coaptive prime manifold enclosures/fluent materials manifold(s) to derive/generate/create any multitude of desired flow pathway matrix for the purposes of supply chain efficiency improvements.
The prior art confers little in the way of efficiency improvement. Strictly speaking, the prior art is not systemized and/or structurally capable/compatible to provide the utility as disclosed with the present invention. The prior art anticipates and teaches inter-incompatibility, incapable of cooperation, and teaches toward structural incompatibility. The prior art teaches and anticipates separate and distinct disciplines having borders/boundaries without traverse, which maintains high cost of operations.
The present invention confers supply chain efficiency improvements, cost reduction, waste reduction, inventory reduction and labor savings reduction potential. The present invention discloses universal prime manifold enclosure apparatus that cooperatively traverses disciplines of the prior art allowing creative options for potential unprecedented supply chain savings. The present invention teaches and discloses methods for deriving supply chain efficiency solutions specifically selectable for generation of any combination of efficiency measures as described herein. The present invention allows for various fluent flow matrix/patterns derivable from and allowing the impelling of fluent materials traversing disciplines as provided by the methods and apparatus disclosed herein. Coaptation means, associated with each prime-materials manifold allows for impelling fluent materials at choice through traditional “Point of Consumption” boundaries, divisions of separateness and distinction via common cooperative connectable fitting.
The present invention discloses and teaches a system which will empower the provider for the first time with the option to evaluate and balance incoming fluent materials(s) and outgoing fluent material(s) traversing disciplines with a coordinated, and cooperative composite impelling matrix flow pathway(s). The present invention operates to defines new points of consumption.
The prior art teaches towards segmentation, separation, differentiation and distinction between disciplines in manufacturing, functional dynamics, treatment/care practice modalities, assessment and planning resulting in higher costs, higher amount of medical wastes, higher inventory carrying costs, and lower supply chain efficiency associated therewith among other things.
The present invention teaches away from the prior art. The present invention teaches the coordination, and cooperative integration and fluent flow matrix pathway blending, traversing traditionally distinct disciplines of manufacturing, functional dynamics, treatment/care practice modalities among other things.